There were players diving on the court for loose balls, tie-ups and tussles underneath the basket and key plays at both ends of the floor.

And that was just in the opening quarter.

“We’re so evenly-matched,” Belmont head coach Mark Dawalga said. “Like I said on Monday, it’s going to come down to who makes shots, and we made a couple more than they did. It was a pretty even game all the way through.”

Despite having top scorer Chayleigh Cadarette foul out with 3:32 to play the 16th-seeded Red Raiders held on for a 33-27 victory over the 17th-seeded Timberwolves in front of a packed crowd inside the BHS gymnasium.

Belmont improves to 10-9 and advances to meet top-seeded Newfound Regional (17-1) in the D-III tournament second round on Thursday night. The season is over for Prospect (9-10).

Cadarette scored nine of her game-high 11 points in the first half and hauled in 11 rebounds to set the tone for her club. The junior captain and forward picked up her fourth foul with 6:33 to play and the hosts ahead by only four, leaving T’Wolves head coach Brian Contorchick optimistic.

“When (Cadarette) picked up her fourth I thought for sure we were going to make a run right there,” he said. “It just never materialized. We came down and had a turnover, they came down and hit a bucket and that was that.”

Junior captain and guard Cassie Contigiani filled the scoring for Belmont, scoring eight of her 11 points in the final frame while Cadarette sat on the bench.

Perhaps the key moment of the night came with 6:45 to play and Belmont leading 22-21. With five players on the floor in search of a rebound, junior guard MaKayla Donovan emerged with the rock and hoisted a pass while seated on the ground to Courtney Clairmont (seven points). The sophomore guard drained a 3-pointer that sparked the hosts.

The opening half was plagued by turnovers from both clubs. Prospect committed seven in the opening stanza while Belmont had five as neither team put up a point in the first 3 minutes and 19 seconds. It was tied 6-6 after one.

“We were nervous tonight,” Dawalga said. “You could see it. But that’s just being young. We got very nervous. To their credit they kept us out of rhythm.

The T’Wolves had another seven giveaways in the second quarter while the Red Raiders committed six of their own. Montminy nailed two 3-pointers in a span of 1:09 to keep Prospect in the game, trailing 14-13 at halftime.

“A couple of problems in our fundamentals,” Contorchick said of the miscues. “We just couldn’t get our footing. A lot of them were unforced turnovers, too, and that’s the heartbreak right there.”

Stifling defense by both squads caused eight combined turnovers in the opening 2:20 of the third quarter. A Clairmont layup gave Belmont its largest lead at 20-13 with 4:04 remaining in the period, but Carazzo and Burley teamed to cut the deficit to 22-20 to start the fourth quarter.

“It was a Jekyll and Hyde kind of season,” Contorchick said. “The ball bounces one way here, another way there and it’s a completely different situation. A big reason for that is I’m the new coach for them, they’re new players for me. We were just trying to figure each other out. Just a couple of different pieces here and there and we’d be OK.

“These girls didn’t quit. Regardless of what the score was — whether we were up, whether we were tied or whether we were down — we never quit. They woked their tails off in practice and played every game hard from tip to buzzer.”

Dawalga was equally complimentary of his players, who helped turn Belmont around after a 4-14 campaign last winter.

“It’s all about them,” Dawalga said. “Every one of them put egos aside and it’s a priviledge to coach them. I don’t use that lightly either. It’s just an all-around good group.”